Lithography and chemical synthesis are two strategies for nanofabrication. Photolithography has remained the standard in the semiconductor industry, but its resolution can be limited. Electron beam (E-beam) lithography and ion-beam lithography feature high resolution and arbitrary patterning, however, they are limited by high cost and low throughput. Chemical synthesis has advantages in both low cost and precise control of compositions, sizes and shapes of nanomaterials. With their precisely tailorable properties down to the atomic level, colloidal micro-/nano-particles are promising as building blocks for functional devices. However, the device applications often require the patterning of particles on solid-state substrates. For this purpose, a wide range of techniques have been developed, including self-assembly, Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method, dip-pen nanolithography, polymer pen lithography and contact-printing. Optical tweezers have been proved effective in manipulating the colloidal micro-/nano-particles in solutions (Grier D G. Nature 2003, 424, 810-816; Pauzauskie P J et al. Nat. Mater. 2006, 5, 97-101; Selhuber-Unkel C et al. Nano Lett. 2008, 8, 2998-3003). Despite its capability of offering remote, real-time and versatile manipulations of colloidal particles, conventional optical tweezers require high laser power (100 mW/μm2) that can damage the colloidal particles and immobilizing the particles onto the substrates has remained challenging. There remains a need for new light-based techniques that can create the arbitrary patterns of colloidal particles immobilized on the substrates. The systems and methods discussed herein address these and other needs.